Oct 5, 2011

Half Empty or half full?

Read about an interesting theory that comes out of this picture below. All we have is a glass which is partly filled with water. Now an interesting question comes out:

There is a lot to learn, even from a glass of water!

Is the glass half-empty or Half full?

That's a weird question because the answer could be both. Usually, one answer first comes to your instinct, even before you realize that there is actually two different answers to it. Whatever you choose, it helps determine your ability to THINK POSITIVE.

Only one, who can see half-full glass half-empty, can make it full.

So only if you thought it is half-empty, you can add some and make it full. To generalize the principle behind it, taking our Life as example, we get many things by birth, and go on to acquire few more during our course of life, and eventually lose some due to unexpected circumstances. We fret over that loss, failing to realize that there is still more in hand, and lot more left to achieve.

Think about the speed breakers you see when you drive. We see them from a distance, slow down a bit, cross it, accelerate further, regain the momentum and continue the journey. We keep seeing many such, repeat the same sequence of actions until the destination is reached. Comparing this sequence with our lives, If obstacles are speed breakers, our sequence of reactions is entirely different from that of driving. We slow down, and go down completely. There is no 'cross-it' followed by that 'accelerate' to regain momentum. The destination remains a far cry. My Uncle always keeps this John Wicker quotation in his email signature: "Life is a long line of opportunities". Once we get over that 'obstacle' and regain momentum, we will realize that John Wicker really meant it!

On another occasion, I was attending a session on Agile Methodologies. The presenter started of with a short video clip. A tall, young blonde lady, totally drunk, walks out of a bar. Another man with long hair, and a goatee, stands at one end of a cross road. They start a conversation when the woman inquires him for direction:

Woman: "Can you tell me how to go to Hotel Caucasian?".

Man: The place is 20 minutes from here if you take the main way.

Man: There is a short route, which can take you in just 10 minutes.

Man: I am going there. You can join me if you want.

Woman: "Oh yes, that would be great. Thanks".

The woman agrees and they start walking. The man takes her into a dark, short lane. None of them is visible now. Darkness fills the projector, and the clip ended a second later. The presenter then asked us to guess what would 've happened to the woman. A rape looked a better possibility to me, and did so for many others. All reported events like Theft, Robbery, Rape, Murder. I added for fun, "He will turn into a Vampire and bite her neck".

To our astonishment, the presenter said, "All of you are wrong. The woman actually reached the Hotel 10 minutes earlier". It is human nature to see the negative aspects first, before beginning a task. His theory was that developers working in Agile projects must always THINK POSITIVE. To bring out that point, he used this interesting example. If you are reading this, and you thought she would 've reached earlier as he promised, you rock! There is something special you have, which many of us doesn't.

In case you anticipated a rape or theft, or if you considered the glass to be half-empty, you need to realize that there is one important habit you need to cultivate. I just did! It will be interesting to see how well this could help, after following it in our lives.a